......52,000 unaccompanied illegals crossed the south Texas border this year.....as the political debate focused on immigration enforcement, a key economic factor has been lost in the clamor. Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which are supplying three-quarters of the latest cross-border flood, and are dependent on their diaspora in the US to prop up their own woeful economies.
Immigrants send back billions of US dollars to their families (disposable income from riding the US gravy train---possibly falsifying documents to show "need.")
Remittances have risen to 16.5% of El Salvador's GDP, 15.7% of Honduras' and 10% of Guatemala's, according to World Bank data. Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia rely on remittances for 4.1% to 9.7% of GDP.
But the figure drops precipitously for every other country in Latin America. Mexico, with the largest immigrant population in the U.S. with as many as 13 million people, now relies on remittances for just 2% of GDP.
Migrant remittances to Mexico were $22 billion in 2013, 29% below their 2006 peak.For Colombia, once a locus of drug-war violence, that has turned itself around, remittances are only 1.1% of GDP. Free-market star Chile's figure is 0%.
It's not surprising to see Central American leaders urging the U.S. to let the newest arrivals stay. Those migrants' remittances offer a lifeline to desperately poor countries.....it helps the broader Third World economy......and ultimately fills government coffers....(and the pockets of greedy govt honchos).
A 2008 Pew Research Center survey found that 54% of foreign-born Hispanics send remittances to their home countries, compared to 17% of U.S.-born Hispanics. Undocumented immigrants are believed to send more cash home than either. Virtually all the cash received by the three remittance outliers is from the U.S. (Guatemala 89%, El Salvador 90%, Honduras 87%).
NOTE WELL---billions in remittances doesn't include the tens of hundreds of billions annual in US foreign aid tax dollars......
US taxpayers handout billions in foreign aid to these do-nothing Third World hellholes--specifically earmarked to subsidize their poverty populations.
US Aid figures do not include military aid and millions in aid from other US agencies:
El Salvador: $280.4M Honduras: $680M Dominican Republic: $223.7M Mexico: $958.2M Guatemala: $391.8M
SOURCE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign_aid_received
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This report shows US aid $’s for the past few years (see page 9 (US Assistance) and pages 25-30 show various other agencies providing aid (DOD, etc.) (needs more research)
LINK http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42582.pdf
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THE FOREIGN AID MODUS OPERANDI---Former Guatemala Prez used US banks to launder millions (swindler was elected to "redistribute" the nation's wealth) An ex-president of Guatemala faced charges in NY that he used US banks to launder millions looted from his impoverished nation. Alfonso Portillo took office in 2000 pledging to redistribute Guatemala’s wealth.
Portillo, 61, allegedly ran scams to drain the impoverished country's coffers. The feds say Portillo embezzled about $2.5M provided by the Taiwanese embassy....$1.5 million was earmarked for “Libraries for Peace”....books for school kids.
Portillo personally endorsed three, $500,000 checks issued against an account at the Intl Bank of China in Manhattan, then deposited the cash in the Miami bank account of a Guatemalan bank controlled by “a close associate and political supporter” .....the money was funneled to bank accounts in Paris in the names of Portillo’s ex-wife and daughter.
Portillo swindled nearly $4M defense funds ...and plundered the national bank run by his alleged co-conspirator through overdrafts financed by public reserves -- stolen money paid for expensive watches and cars, for himself and his associates, according to the indictment. (Source: NY POST news report 5/28/13.)
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Time to cut off US aid to these corrupt, do-nothing governments. US aid should be suspended until the countries tell us where the aid money is going......and demand they put out appropriate messaging to counter the ads said to be fueling the horrendous surge at the border from Central America.